I have been really busy this sunday and monday, so forgive me if this chapter is a little scrambled and late-ish. Also (this is an important note if you want the story to continue), unfortunately and regrettably, as of this chapter I have run dry on ideas for the last few days of Karma's trials; so if the story is to continue, I will need a few ideas to bounce around inside of my head. Please message or review with ideas, it could just help in the continuation of this story. I have the basic idea as to how the story will end, but am horrible at filling the storyline out before its end. Please help, I will not turn away any assistance I can get!
Signed: Ragnarok Emissary
Disclaimer: Meh! Too tired to fight it today, I admit a temporary defeat. I own nothing.
Have you ever had a dream that has enough reality to it that makes it seem real? I'm not the type that dreams often so I wouldn't know, at least until now. The ever so realistic nightmare had started out like this . . .
The aching wouldn't stop! I lay in my bedroom downstairs where Stoic the vast had once occupied, with mom and dad's room above, tossing and turning as the cursed thing throbbed in double time with my heart. For some reason the eyepatch was rubbing uncomfortably over the sensitive flesh of my eyelid, so I had taken it off; that helped relieve some of the stinging. I padded over to the basin of water on my desk near the window and pulled open my eye, wincing as the hardened goop that had glued it shut broke and flaked. The infection was getting worse; the light shade of yellow that the whites had been earlier paled in comparison to the milky puss color that they were now, with bloodshot veins coursing at the outer edges. "The Slit", as I had so named it, seemed sharper than normal, while my iris had only returned slightly.
Tired of waiting for the pain to go away, I decided that I would take a walk; quite an uneventful thing for a dream. I crawled army style across the front room floor knowing that Toothless might catch me, my heat would stick out like a sore thumb if I was standing; I'd figured out that he could sense heat on one of my excursions during deep winter. There are only three seasons in Berk: frosted spring, winter, and then there was deep winter (for those of you who haven't figured it out, the thirds the coldest). The door was already open, a stupid action for anytime of year in Berk, but I used it to my advantage as I got to my feet in the doorway and walked out. It wasn't that cold, a miracle for this time of year, but I wasn't paying attention to that.
Outside there were people with candles and torches, dressed in full viking attire. I felt their hate filled stares as they stood there; a silent mob. I could recognize many of the faces of kids and people I knew back home, why were they all so mad? I saw one such boy that I had known before, he had been so young, one of my first victims of prank. He lifted his torch high and threw it, the flame leaving a tail like a comet as it sailed toward me. I yelped and ducked under it at the last minute, but now the rest of group were throwing their own lights; some were tossing in jeers like "this is for what you did!" and "burn you devil!". Why is everyone doing this!
"You've been a little demon ever since you were seven and now you have the mark to prove it!" someone in the crowd yelled, I heard it echo in my head. How bad of a person was I really? I broke away from the flaming pile, wax from the candles clinging to me, and ran back into my house looking to escape out the back door. I slammed through it to find a mass variety dragons waiting on the outside, roaring their heads off; I recognized many of them. They all pulled back their heads, gas seeping out from the backs of their throats, I knew what came next! I ducked back into the house, or at least I wanted to; in all truth I was rooted to the spot. A hundred tongues of flames erupted toward me, surrounding me and bathing me in a bright flare of orange, red, and yellow. There was no pain, and no sound but my heartbeat as the fire blast folded in around and over me. There was a shady silhouette in the midst of all this fire, it looked like a dragon beating its wings and roaring, but the shadow soon was overtaken by the burning brilliance and replaced with a giant, red slitted eye staring at me with hatred. Demonic child! Monster! Jerk! The hurtful words echoed in my head, stinging with each syllable.
"No! I'm not that person anymore! I've changed for the better! My past does not become me!" I screamed defiantly into the flame. The burning eye before me closed, the flames receded, leaving me alone in a black void as I fell. Down . . . down . . . into oblivion.
I awoke with a start, sitting up and screaming "I'M NOT THAT WAY ANYMORE!". I looked around, realizing that I was back in Glint's cave; gladly Glint wasn't there to witness my explosion, I didn't want to give him anymore trouble since yesterday. I looked out of the alcove, searching for a possible way to scale the rock wall down to the ground, and realizing that I would have to wait for Glint to return if I wanted to leave. Get back soon, okay? I don't want to spend the whole day here by myself!
(Scene change)
Hiccup rode Toothless through the wind, clicking meticulously with his prosthetic in the foot-pedal. Toothless had made a full recovery and Hiccup was dying to know if his son was alive. And if he was alive, was he alright? It had been nagging him ever since he had started Karma on his punishment, and the actions of the village trainees had increased his motivation ten fold. They had been flying for an hour straight and could barely see Anglerock Isle as a speck on the horizon, while Berk was only a slightly bigger speck in the opposite direction. Even Toothless seemed to want to know, and he had been happy to see Karma leave.
They flew on for another hour and a half through the early morning, riding the air currents most of the way, until the island was in sight. It looked about the same as when Hiccup had first scouted it out, except for a meadow that looked charred and ashen. He decided that that would be the first place to look.
"Right there bud." Hiccup said leaning over and pointing so that Toothless could see where, and clicking the pedal accordingly; he had become quite adept at doing so with his fake leg over the past twenty years. They landed in the burnt clearing and Hiccup dismounted, his leg squeaking as he landed on the ash covered ground. They paced around the clearing taking note of everything that seemed out of the ordinary, or more Toothless nudging at things and Hiccup writing them in his journal. Judging from the green and black scales scattered on the west side, as well as some clean cut beech trees, there had been a Timber Jack here. The ashes meant that there had been a fire (no brainer), but there was more than one type of fire damage.
Timber Jacks and Nightmares breath a more liquid form of gas and flame, while Gronkles, Zipplebacks, Nadders, and Night Fury would use a blast of vapor gas in the flame. There was evidence of liquid fire all over the tree bark, a place that can't be burned by a quick rush of flame, and of vapor flame in the leafy branches. So what was the second dragon? A Gronkle or Nadder would be the most likely, but how would it have penetrated a Timber Jacks scales? A Zippleback could do it, but there would be a lot more flame and tons more damage to show for it. All that was left that could take down a Timber Jack with minimal damage to the surroundings was either a species that hadn't been analyzed for combat prowess, or a Night Fury. Hiccup looked around him one more time, trying to conclude if this had anything to do with Karma or not.
It was funny that such a bad habit as looking down at the ground found the final bit of evidence. A slight crater that had been covered in pillows of ashen leaves sat only a few feet away from where Hiccup had been standing, and next to it, covered by a thin layer of fine white powder, was a crystalized spatter of dried blood. Upon noticing it Toothless sniffed at the crusted crimson puddle, before returning to his friend's side.
"Was he here boy?" Hiccup asked, knowing that Toothless understood him well enough. He nodded, Hiccup pointed at the bloodstain and Toothless nodded once more. Hiccup shuddered as he thought of what might have transpired, his imagination running wild with horrendous scenarios in which his son would be mortally wounded. Toothless recognized his worried expression and licked at Hiccup's face in the hopes that it would break his stupor, it worked more or less. Hiccup scratched behind his friend's ears, just where he likes it, before deciding to carry on.
They took to the skies when no more evidence could be found in the clearing, soaring low over the trees so that they could better see. They had found some tracks more towards the center of the island that led outward, the deep stomp type tracks that only Karma could pull off when he was fuming. The tracks had led to a short cliff over a cove and double back twice to signify that he had backed up and ran over the edge; there were no tracks leading out of the cove, but Hiccup was confident that they had just been washed out with the tides. Hiccup was about to see about going down into the cove when Toothless growled and got into position.
"Hey bud what's wrong?" Hiccup asked startled, Toothless didn't seem to be growling at him. He's looking up, Hiccup decided and looked up too, what he saw surprised him. A black shadow was drifting lazily across the sky, yet with a sense of direction. Hiccup recognized the general shape as a dragon. Night Fury, He concluded before jumping up on Toothless. Night Fury are not exceedingly rare, they just don't travel in large groups and are hard to find because their black and travel at night . . . unless they had a reason to be out in the day. What's your reason, little guy? Hiccup asked rhetorically.
(perspective change)
Glint was particularly pleased, the fish had come easily today, usually he had to fly over the water's surface for hours until he could find a fish daring enough to come close enough to the top. The method in which his friend would catch was a lot faster, but he had given up trying to do that ever since he had lost his friend's stick. He had caught his fill and was now headed back with a fat cod, knowing that his friend would need some sustenance. He was tempted to go back to the clearing where he had first found his friend and get his friend's things, but didn't feel like his friend would need them anyway.
A scent caught wind in his nostrils, it was the slightly musty scent of dirty stone, and fish. Glint knew this smell, it was the smell of another of his kind, but there was another scent that mixed in with it; a fragrance of metal, leather, wood, and sweat. These were the same scents from three weeks ago, and now they were following him! Glint hated people that snoop around without just plain asking before they do, and these people had definitely not asked! He needed to be quick; he was going to get in his cave and defend it from there, his friend would understand.
He was almost there, he looped the opposite direction than he would regularly to get into his alcove; this would create a blind spot long enough that he could prepare.
(perspective reset)
This was a rough surprise: here I am sitting in the cave and starting to feel hungry, when Glint comes crashing in and drops a fish for me. Yet before I could grab it, he picked me up with his teeth retracted and stuck me in the back of the cave. I yelped in protest and started to rebuke him, but he urgently pinned me to the ground with his wing and growled toward the cave mouth. I looked out the entrance from my uncomfortable position on the ground to see what Glint was on about. I heard a click and then another; I knew these clicks, dad was here. A black form streaked past the entrance, before looping back and landing on the lip of Glint's cave.
(Perspective change)
Hiccup looked around the alcove from his spot atop Toothless' back, the smaller Night Fury had recoiled to the back of the cave and was now hissing at the pair menacingly. Hiccup noticed that the little guy's wing was draped over something protectively, blocking it from view. The bulge moved! The smallish dragon seemed to struggle to keep his wing down as the thing beneath it struggled to bring his wing up.
"Gods! Glint I can't breathe under here!" a muffled voice echoed through the shallow cavern. Hiccup froze, his back straight eyes trained on the bulge in the dragon's leathery wing membrane. The dragon seemed to understand slightly and lifted his wing slightly as if to say "here's your air, now stay there". Karma's head popped out of the little opening the dragon had made; Hiccup melted with relief. His russet brown hair was a bit messy, but Hiccups main focus was that he could only see one of his son's eyes. The other eye had been covered from the high cheek up barely past his eyebrow with a crude leather eyepatch sewn with rough twine that looked like it had been pulled from a rope, the ends of a scar showing from the top and bottom. Hiccup felt his son stare at him like he wanted to know what he thought.
"I did this to you." Hiccup placed the blame on himself, but he felt his son's inquisitive expression soften into one of his crooked smiles. Karma shook his head, his one eye still following his fathers face.
"You got what you came for, it's cheatin' if you stick around any longer." Karma said playfully, holding out his hand in a shooing motion . . .
Dun dun dun . . . yeah.
There are five days left, and I don't know what to fill them up with, after that I know what I want to write. Please review or Personal Message me with ideas or your thoughts on what could happen in the last five days. I will probably put a spin on ideas to keep the story interesting so don't worry about it being boring. I think it was fun to end the chapter like I did rather than making the story anticlimactic.
Karma: what is this?
Me: this is an Idea box, do you want to know what its doing?
Karma: what?
Me: STARVING!
